Applicant has, for many years, been in the business of designing and manufacturing backpacks of many types including those designed for the heaviest loads. In connection with design and development of such large backpacks, there is a need to deal with means for carrying and distributing the load for maximum comfort of the wearer. While much of the weight is normally carried on the hips on padded waistband members, a certain amount is also carried on the shoulders. It has also been found desirable to provide means for shifting the proportion of weight from the hips to the shoulders and vice versa. In response to such requirements, applicant has designed backpacks incorporating a shoulder harness with padded shoulder pads and with stabilizing straps attached to the shoulder pads which are fastened to the waistband member and to the backpack above the attachment points for the shoulder straps.
The shoulder pads presently in use basically constitute sleeves of strong synthetic fabric which are filled with foam padding material. Means for attachment to the backpack including buckles, etc. are stitched to the fabric sleeve. A strip of Velcro hook type fastening material is stitched to one side of the pad and is stitched through the foam pad to the opposite side. Also sewed to the ends of the sleeves are load control panels of strong fabric having Velcro loop material on one side. These panels which engage the Velcro hook material carry most of the tension load which would otherwise be carried by the shoulder pad itself which would tend to stretch the pads and unduly compress the foam padding.
Securely stitched to one end of each of the sleeves and to the load control panels are stabilizing straps of webbing material. These straps are fastened at intervals along the length of the load control panels by means of spaced lateral seams which define anchoring points for a sternum strap which prevents the shoulder straps from slipping to the outside.
In use it has been found that the shoulder pad structure described above tends to bunch up and wrinkle the sleeve material creating pressure points against the wearer's shoulders. Over time this becomes somewhat uncomfortable and the wearer tends to try to move the pad around to shift the concentrated pressure points resulting from the wrinkles, etc. to different locations.